{"id":71539,"date":"2013-11-02T08:42:18","date_gmt":"2013-11-02T12:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=71539"},"modified":"2013-11-02T08:49:21","modified_gmt":"2013-11-02T12:49:21","slug":"the-great-unraveling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/by-judith-gayle-2\/the-great-unraveling\/","title":{"rendered":"The Great Unraveling"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Most of you are smart enough to avoid television news coverage, at least that’s what you tell me. I keep an eye on it because so many of my fellow Americans watch, feeding at the trough of infotainment, a 24\/7 bread and circuses event that leaves us too emotionally exhausted to be outraged over the faux-outrage being displayed by this or that party. Mostly that party. This week’s pony show was, of course, brought to us by the Pubs, amping up the energy in opposing the Affordable Care Act. The sniping and stupidity displayed during this most recent round of Congressional hearings culminated in the raking of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius over the coals.<\/p>\n

\"Political I couldn’t watch; it had the same energy signature as a ritualistic blood-letting. Everyone involved with the ACA website roll-out had already apologized profusely, so a public scourging seemed pointless and pretty much proved to be. I asked Fishin’ Jim if he tuned in and he said he had, that Sebelius had preformed admirably as the opposition pounded away at her, asking the same questions over and over (and mugging for the audience back home) although, he added, he hoped she’d had that facial tick before that day. Polls today indicate that while most people are critical of the failed technology, there’s been no change in opinion over ACA itself. Pubs = zero. Sebelius = nervous condition.<\/p>\n

Some of this non-sense makes me nuts. I’d rather watch Hoda and Kathie Lee discuss social trivialities, and believe me, I’m as eager for that as a root canal. At least they have a sense of humor, something seriously lacking in the politics of the day. There were a couple of genuine moments in this Kabuki that made me laugh though, a rarity. One involved New Jersey Dem, Frank Pallone, accusing the Pubs of\u00a0trying to scare people<\/a>\u00a0away from enrollment. When he was rebuffed, he refused to yield the floor, calling the event a “monkey court.” Amen, brother Frank!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The other was Jon Stewart, leading another chorus of\u00a0the “Fuck You” song<\/a>\u00a0in response to the networks amplifying his own criticism of the roll-out to add to the political fodder. Amen and Amen, brother Jon!<\/p>\n

Obviously there were bigger stories to attend to, but most were given a quick once-over and then dropped like a hot rock in favor of the Obamacare bash-a-thon. One would even have met the Pubs tinfoil hat test, should they have been willing to give up their focus of defending “the market” as the answer to all personal problems and the real God of our Fathers. What did Obama know — about everything, turns out — and when did he know it? The list is growing, courtesy of the least-well-wrapped among us.<\/p>\n

What did he know about Benghazi is the paranoid question that won’t die. (Will there be any truthful revelation<\/a>\u00a0about this event is another.) Was he aware of how fragile the ACA website was when it was introduced, and if so did he allow it to be released because the failure of the sign-up will surely lead to single payer socialism (be still my heart!) down the line? And what did he know about NSA data collections? Doesn’t he personally approve everything done in the name of U.S. citizens?\u00a0Ummm<\/em>\u00a0… yeah, that’s right. Everything?<\/p>\n

Well, perhaps he doesn’t know all the details, according to spy-chief James Clapper, who casually concluded that this kind of intelligence gathering can’t be a surprise to anyone. Tell that to the Chinese who, alarmed at the amount of press over this issue, now want to know what Obama knows about their gazillions of bytes of cyber-communication.<\/p>\n

Evidently Snowden leaked a top-secret map showing 90 U.S. surveillance facilities at diplomatic missions worldwide, including those of the British and Australians, and his lawyer tells us that he’s accepting an invitation to discuss the material with the Germans (who effectively lead the European Union). U.S. intelligence professionals have said the reports are based on misinterpretation of an NSA slide Snowden leaked to the media.<\/p>\n

There’s plenty of hypocrisy to go around on this one, of course. Many of the governments complaining today willingly surrendered information covertly, but it’s the secrets that pissed them off. Kerry has been frantically trying to soothe the knitted European brow over allegations of spying on allies, reminding them that the data in question have been gathered and shared by European agencies. We don’t get those reports on our front page: TMI, donch’a know. Keep the home crowd simmering quietly with the other frogs in the pot, focused on the sideshow.<\/p>\n

Since Bush decided to give us a War on Terror and a gigantic bureaucracy to handle it, I’ve thought the job of decoding all this information improbable if not impossible. I wasn’t aware that Homeland Security would become a multi-billion dollar industry back in its infancy, of course. I figured the Pentagon, FBI and CIA had the security business covered. Silly me! Now, when we actually confront the realities, the numbers are staggering. In the huge and growing security industry, as many as 4 million people hold a “top secret” security clearance, as do 500,000 or so private contractors. In this instance, more is definitely not better.<\/p>\n

Got to ask, in a conglomerate this huge and with so many entities doing their own thing, who’s minding the store? And with all a president is required to manage, which details should he be made privy to? You and I could probably agree on a number of them that presidential handlers do not consider critical. The meme that any sitting president is bubbled within his own small circle, and those that influence it, has been a common complaint over the years, but in a time of exploding communications and suspension of real journalism, it’s become more than just part of the problem. Especially true, I think, for this president, in a political climate where there is outright rebellion over his every move.<\/p>\n

The latest “what did he know and when” has to do with a recent book that spills White House beans over some in the Obama campaign camp suggesting he pick Hillary Clinton over Biden as a 2012 VP choice. According to Press Secretary Jay Carney today, Barack was unaware of the insider squabble and happy as a clam with good ol’ Joe. I wonder when Obama will develop HIS nervous tick?<\/p>\n

Everywhere we look, there’s a tug-o-war, evident these last days in our judicial system.\u00a0 For example, the stringent abortion law in Texas has shifted several times in a matter of days and the contraception mandate is again in question, as courts of appeal side with religious employers. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has rebuked nine (red) states for defying the Pentagon and federal law by refusing to issue ID cards enabling same-sex spouses of National Guard members to claim benefits. In my own hard-headed state, now that a proposed gun nullification law has been vetoed — with a proposed override failing by just one vote — another has been drawn with hopes that it will pass in\u00a0ongoing defiance<\/a> of federal gun law. This is as close to Civil War as we’ve come since Lincoln led the pack.<\/p>\n

So here we are, mid-eclipse, smack in the middle of the Pluto\/Uranus energy, deep in the heart of the Great Unraveling and struggling with the see-saw of political whimsy. Isn’t that great? Aren’t you glad we’re peeling back this disinformation-onion, getting to the darker realities of the flawed government machinery that — once set in motion — has taken on a life of its own? Aren’t you pleased that the pain of this moment has finally grabbed the attention of the public, creating a conversation that can no longer be ignored? Are you just gleeful that our frayed nerves have pushed our emotions to the surface, that our broken systems have made our challenges evident?<\/p>\n

OK, not gleeful, exactly. But at least aware on levels that we hadn’t contemplated before, engaged in rethinking our course of action both personally and politically, perhaps even lifting our heads above the mundane to ponder the meaning of life both for ourselves and those who might wish to be born on the planet in the future. This is not the time, as author and spiritual leader Marianne Williamson likes to say, “to play small.”<\/p>\n

With Mars opposing the Pluto\/Chiron conjunction, this feels something like a reckoning, a moment in time beyond which we cannot move until we open our hearts to the responsibility of self-healing and self-determination. A time to choose our course. And even though the flux of energies seems never-ending and crazy-making, we are capable of meeting this challenge, along with those that come next, because we’ve been preparing for them, step by step for quite some time now.<\/p>\n

Yes, I know. In Plutonian fashion, this feels very dire and threatening — standing in the ashes without, as yet, a sign of the rising Phoenix — but as with the Death card in Tarot, this energy indicates both an ending and a beginning, appropriate to our shifting age. To quote from Len’s piece this week: “… Chiron often intervenes as a blessing disguised as a setback.” In comments, I likened that to a healing crisis and then, this week, I ran across this quote from Deena Metzger, in\u00a0gratefulness.org<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“A sacred illness is one that educates us and alters us from the inside out, provides experiences and therefore knowledge that we could not possibly achieve in any other way.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This appears to be our time of sacred illness, leading to our evolution as 21st century creatures, forerunners of this new age. I have confidence that we’ve already begun a healing process, even if it remains unseen. In human evolution, let’s remember that the change that grows our soul happens within us long before it projects outside of us, to manifest in matter.<\/p>\n

If we are to change things, in our lives, in our world, we must first change ourselves. Too often that requires painful events to get our attention, and we’ve been in that process for a good long while now, haven’t we? Long enough to get our sea legs under us, long enough to realize that we can not only survive this existential challenge but carefully, mindfully create lives that add to the healing and enlightenment on the planet. And although we have not yet managed to tip the balance in the public square, in each of our own lives we have felt the possibility of aiding the collective as we individually flourish and contribute.<\/p>\n

There are those around us that do not yet understand what’s happening, or see what is possible. In a time of conflict, our ability to offer healing energy to them is part of our bundle, as the Quakers say — a way to pay forward all that we have received. As the old paradigm unravels before our very eyes, our ability to offer not only ourselves but\u00a0others tenderness and acceptance is the alchemy needed to begin a healing process from the fear that darkens minds. We heal our own concerns as we extend ourselves to others.<\/p>\n

As Eric mentioned in Friday’s subscriber piece, we face unprecedented challenges, ones over which we seem to have little control. If we’re to find answers to these problems, we will have to bring our best game, our highest aspirations and our most mature decision-making into focus. In the quiet of meditation and prayer, in the grip of music or art or beauty, in the arms of love and fellowship and appreciation, we will find the strength to begin again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves Most of you are smart enough to avoid television news coverage, at least that’s what you tell me. I keep an eye on it because so many of my fellow Americans watch, feeding at the trough of infotainment, a 24\/7 bread and circuses event that leaves us too emotionally … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1744],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71539"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71539\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}